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Archive for March, 2016

This LINK is to a straightforward, thought-provoking, and alarming article on U.S. imperial madness. It is a MUST read.

An excerpt:“How many people are aware that a world war has begun? At present, it is a war of propaganda, of lies and distraction, but this can change instantaneously with the first mistaken order, the first missile.

In 2009, President Obama stood before an adoring crowd in the centre of Prague, in the heart of Europe. He pledged himself to make “the world free from nuclear weapons”. People cheered and some cried. A torrent of platitudes flowed from the media. Obama was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

It was all fake. He was lying.

The Obama administration has built more nuclear weapons, more nuclear warheads, more nuclear delivery systems, more nuclear factories. Nuclear warhead spending alone rose higher under Obama than under any American president. The cost over thirty years is more than $1 trillion.”

On Thursday, March 17, Los Angeles Catholic Worker community member Jeff Dietrich (third from left) and Guadalupe Catholic Worker community member Dennis Apel (first on left) appeared in Santa Barbara Federal Court for sentencing regarding the August 8, 2015 nonviolent witness at Vandenberg AFB in protest against U.S. nuclear weapons policy.

Both Jeff and Dennis were sentenced to six months supervised probation and 200 hours of community service (NOT connected in any way with the Catholic Worker), along with $35 in court assessment fees. Both Jeff and Dennis stated they will not comply in any way with the sentence nor pay the court assessment fees.

Magistrate Judge Louise LaMonthe scheduled an April 21 “Progress Hearing” to determine what both defendants have accomplished. Again, as with Mike Wisniewski, Magistrate Judge Louise LaMonthe did not want to sentence jail time for either defendant. However, she only postponed what clearly will be inevitable in this situation since Jeff and Dennis have absolutely no intent to comply with any part of their probation sentence. Stay tuned. You can read Dennis Apel’s court statement HERE.

NOTE: During time allotted for the prosecution to make a statement before sentencing, Federal Prosecutor Sharon McCaslin referred to Jeff Dietrich as “the leader of a cult” (obviously believing the Catholic Worker a cult).

Former LACW community member David Omondi (second from right) will be sentenced on April 28.

From Friday, March 4, through Sunday, March 6, faith-based anti-nuclear resisters from the western part of the U.S. gathered in Santa Barbara, CA, for the annual PLC Resistance Retreat and Direct Action, this year at Vandenberg AFB. Photos courtesy of The Nuclear Resister.

On Sunday, March 6, as part of the Pacific Life Community’s direct action at the front gate of Vandenberg AFB, seven PLC members were arrested for trespass onto military property. Those arrested included: (left to right) Charley Smith, Elizabeth Murray, Karan Benton, Jorge Manly-Gil, Tom Webb, Ed Ehmke, and Mary Jane Parrine. All were cited and later released. A court date will be scheduled at a later date. Below is a letter the seven attempted to deliver to the base commander and read during their arrest:

We are members of the Pacific Life Community – a local network of spiritually motivated advocates for ending nuclear weapons and other means of war-making through nonviolent direct action. Today we cross the line because we believe that actions inside Vandenberg Air Force Base have crossed the line – the line of regard for our fellow human beings.

We refer to the regular launchings of Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, which land on the occupied territory of the Marshall Islands. These ICBMs contribute to the further poisoning of the air, land, and waters surrounding the Marshall islands, whose people continue to suffer terribly from a legacy of U.S. government nuclear testing on their formerly pristine paradise.

But far from honoring the longstanding debt owed to the Marshalese people as a result of decades of these nuclear tests, our government continues to squander U.S. taxpayer dollars to carry out the ongoing destruction of the Marshall Islands, whose air, water, and land continue to be poisoned from our ICBMs and other U.S. military materiel.

Those tax dollars could be put to much better use here at home — to alleviate economic misery by creating jobs and boosting local infrastructure. Instead, our expensive military occupation of the Marshall Islands has forced these innocent people away from their homes and consigned them to lives of misery and squalor.

Moreover, the firing of ICBMs by the United States may be considered as a provocation during this time of simmering tensions in the Asia-Pacific region – we are thinking specifically of North Korea. Far from making the American people safer, these missile firings may draw us closer to a nuclear conflagration.

We appeal to you to follow a higher law – that of your conscience – and refuse to send more missiles into the Pacific. Instead, we urge you to join us in calling for a permanent U.S. withdrawal from the Marshall Islands, including provision of fair and just compensation for a people deeply wronged by misguided U.S. policies.